NAPLES, Fla. – Mike Whan won’t be at Tiburon on Sunday for the historic finish at the CME Group Tour Championship. He’s off to Spain instead on Saturday night for his first Ladies European Tour player meeting.
At his annual season-ending press conference, Whan addressed the 50-50 proposal on the table that would unite the LPGA with the struggling LET. He said boards of both tours voted unanimously to move forward. The proposal includes having six board members from each side with all proceeds staying in Europe.
The initial move would provide access to Q-Series, but not the chance to earn full cards, though Whan said that might come after the schedule has been significantly bolstered.
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European players will have the final vote on Tuesday.
“I want to make sure the European Tour players know that this is not some American growth strategy,” said Whan. “I’m not expecting to make money at the LET.”
The LPGA’s mission, Whan said, is to provide women the opportunity to pursue their dreams in the game of golf. In his pitch to the LPGA board, Whan said that doesn’t see a boundary or a fence around that statement.
“So I said to my board, I think we should do this because we can,” said Whan. “We really can. And I think it’s our responsibility. Our founders would have done it if they would have had this ability, so why shouldn’t we?”
Whan compared the LET’s thin schedule to what the LPGA looked like in 2009, shortly before he took over. In other words, it’s dire.
In 2008 the LET had 28 tournaments. In 2017 it dropped to 15 events.
This year’s schedule includes 20 tournaments, but three of those are jointly sanctioned by the LPGA: AIG Women’s British Open, Evian Championship, Ladies Scottish Open. They’ll play for almost $15 million this season, though roughly $10 million comes from those three co-sanctioned tournaments. The LPGA competed for $70.2 million this season.
“I don’t see why we shouldn’t go into this partnership,” said Nicole Broch Larsen, who got her start on the LPGA and will compete in Spain next week to keep her membership.
Broch Larsen, the 2015 Ladies European Tour Player of the Year, won the Helsingborg Open in Sweden that year, about an hour away from her home in Denmark. Several dozen friends and family came out to see her. She couldn’t defend the next year because the LET lost the event.
“There’s plenty of players that want to just stay in Europe and stay at home and play in Europe,” said England’s Jodi Ewart Shadoff, “which I totally understand. But there’s obviously not many tournaments throughout the year. Everyone wants to see more tournaments, more prize money, more TV time.”
Whan said he views the LET as a tour that one day can be built into a place where players can compete their entire careers.
“I’m not sure if that’s a realistic short or long-term goal on Symetra,” said Whan, “but I think it’s a real, realistic, even short-term goal on the LET.”
If the European players don’t take him up on the offer, Whan said there won’t be any animosity. It’s wouldn’t be the first time that a partnership between the two organizations never got off the ground.
“It’s their decision,” said Whan, “and I think we’re going to put a really good case together on how this can be impactful. But if people feel that that’s just a little bit too either threatening or too American or too Mike Whan, any of those things, that would be fine if it doesn’t work out.”
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